


Welcome to Red Mesa

by bees and more than bees (Crowleyfornia_Girls)



Series: WTNV Fictober [7]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Red Mesa, Wtnv fictober, this was so frustrating to write jfc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-08
Updated: 2015-10-08
Packaged: 2018-04-25 10:08:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4956187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowleyfornia_Girls/pseuds/bees%20and%20more%20than%20bees
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amerigo's life always goes just a little bit wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome to Red Mesa

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be perfectly honest, I did not want to publish this, and I still have my doubts. The prompt was for something that's difficult to write, and oh boy, a year of trying to write this later let me tell you, it's more difficult than it should be. It's probably not the best thing I've written, but it's written.  
> Maybe one day I'll stop using ocs for this, who knows?
> 
> This is for WTNV Fictober, Day 7: Stretch those boundaries a little; write something that you find difficult to write.

When Amerigo was 13, he was like all other pre-teens his age- a lot of trouble and good at getting in to things he wasn't supposed to get into. And even back then, he absolutely adored science, though his interests were constantly changing. Chemistry fascinated him for a long time, and during this time, he often stayed after school to do homework and talk to the Chemistry teacher, even though he still had a few years before he could take the class.

The teacher leaves early one day, letting Amerigo stay behind, and Amerigo is the troublesome kid he is. He goes through books of chemical equations and finds one that's supposed to create a small explosion. The chemicals are easy to find, and he follows the equation, but the explosion is much bigger than he anticipated and it knocks him back against a shelf of chemicals, the last thing he remembers before passing out from the fumes being something heavy falling on him and trapping him.

He wakes up a few days later in the hospital. The school, they say, was fine- though a wall in the science room collapsed on him and chemicals were spilled everywhere. He is a lot less fine. The part of the wall that had fallen on him had broken one of his arms and one of his legs, and chemicals had been eating away at his skin. His mother said they really had tried, but in the end, he'd lost his leg to an infection.

It's hard to adjust to life on crutches, especially at such a young age. The school expels him, and he has to go to an alternative Catholic school. The kids there don't say anything, maybe out of respect, or maybe because they feel obligated to be nice to him.

Amerigo knows they talk, though, and he decides to ignore it in favour of studying science- everything about it he can find. He blocks people out, reading Einstein and Darwin in his free time, and as he gets older, he gets his first job working behind the counter in a convenience store and starts saving up for a prosthetic.

He comes across neurotoxicology during this time, and it fascinates him from the beginning- it's such a new field with so much to offer- so after high school he takes his chances.

He studies in Brazil for the first few years, in a city just a few hours away from the small town he grew up in, but soon realizes that he wants to be known in this field, to be remembered for this, and this takes him to a college in Arizona.

The move to America is easy, it's adjusting to life in America that's difficult- learning English and trying to ignore the way people stare at him, but there's always a reason to stare- be it his accent or his dreadlocks or his crutches.

Again, Amerigo ignores people in favour of focusing on science, and two years before his graduation, he finally gets a prosthetic and has a lovely girlfriend. He graduates with a doctorate's degree in toxicology, and as a neurologist. He finds a job, and settles down with his girlfriend, now fiance.

A few uneventful years pass. He's lost in his work again, and his fiance is still his fiance, but now they've got a kid- a little girl named Atci who looks just like him. He loves her from the first time he sees her, maybe even more than his job.

He knows he loves her more than his fiance, and it's apparent to his fiance, too. She leaves him and he doesn't stop her. She leaves Atci with him and soon after he loses his job. Just when it feels like everything is crashing down, he gets offered a new job. A company called Strexcorp calls him looking for an experienced neurotoxicologist.

He takes the job without a second though, packs his and Atci's things and moves to a town called Red Mesa. He's only been there a bit more than a week when he takes Atci grocery shopping with him. It's embarrassing for him when she starts crying and he can't quiet her- he never payed attention to that before, and now here he is in the middle of the store in a town that's already decided to outcast him, unable to quiet her down.

Someone steps forward. He has no idea who they are- they don't even look human and it's hugely disconcerting, but they walk over and gently take Atci from him, saying they can help, and in a matter of what seems like just seconds, Atci is quiet and smiling.

He thanks the person, taking her back, and the person smiles up at him, three red eyes blinking in unison. "It's no problem," they say, then, "Welcome to Red Mesa."


End file.
